No port-in, no $30. Port one in and US Mobile pays it as real money, not bill credit, within days.
It is unusual among phone plans: the reward is not bill credit, it is a US Mobile Rewards Prepaid Mastercard issued by Patriot Bank, N.A., which spends wherever Mastercard is taken in the US. Two strings attached. The card carries an expiration date and any balance still on it expires with it, and the only way to get a link is from a friend, because the terms bar everyone else from handing one out.
Referral links are meant for private sharing only. Posting referral links on public forums, websites, social media groups, or platforms with the intent of gaining mass referrals is prohibited. Any accounts found to be engaging in this behavior may have their referral rewards canceled and could be disqualified from future participation in the Program.
If you do not know anyone on US Mobile, the honest answer is to sign up without a referral. A code lifted from a forum or a coupon page is exactly the pattern that clause names, and US Mobile pays out only once eligibility on both accounts is confirmed, so a code like that puts your own reward at risk.
What pays what
| You, the new customer, after porting a number in on an Unlimited or By the Gig plan | $30 |
|---|---|
| Signing up without porting in a number | $0 |
| Devices, add-ons, international eSIM, Starlink plans | Do not count |
| Anyone who has had an active US Mobile line before | $0 |
| Cancelling right after activation | Forfeited |
That $30 figure is US Mobile’s own, read on its referral page on September 14, 2026 alongside terms last updated August 12, 2026. The program it replaced paid $25 on a ladder of conditions and ended on July 26, 2026; anything still quoting $25, a $100 spend or six billing cycles is describing the old one.
Do this, in this order
- Get the link or code privately from someone you know. A friend already on US Mobile finds it under Rewards in their own account and sends it to you directly. They need at least one paid line that is active and in good standing for their side to count.
- Use it at the right moment. Create your account through the referral link, or enter the referral code while you buy the plan. There is no way to attach it afterwards.
- Port in a real number. This is mandatory and it is the most common way people fall out. Porting in means moving your existing phone number over from your current carrier instead of accepting a fresh one. At least one line has to do this, and it has to activate on an Unlimited or By the Gig plan.
- Pick a plan that counts. Unlimited and By the Gig plans qualify. Devices, add-ons, international eSIM and Starlink plans are ineligible by name.
- Then stay put for a while. US Mobile lists the behaviours its fraud team flags: porting out, removing a payment method, requesting a refund or letting a line expire “immediately after a referral bonus is provisioned”, and buying a plan you never activate. Any of them can cancel the reward and disqualify the account.
- Accept the card terms, then spend the card before it expires. Every customer has to accept the Rewards card terms in their dashboard before anything is paid. The prepaid Mastercard is valid only through the expiration date on it, works only for US transactions, and cannot be used at an ATM or cashed out. Treat it as $30 to spend, not money in an account.
The fine print that decides whether it pays at all
The new program is much simpler than the one it replaced, so most of what is left to go wrong is about timing and intent.
A returning customer is usually barred. You are eligible only if you have never had a US Mobile account, or had one but never activated a line, had service or made a purchase. A lapsed customer who once had service does not qualify.
Once the reward is issued, the refund window closes. The line used to qualify “will be ineligible for a refund for the current billing cycle”. If the plan turns out to be wrong for you, that month is spent.
Your friend gets to see some of your progress. To track the referral, US Mobile shares the recipient’s name, port-in status and activation confirmation with that friend. Billing and payment details are excluded, but if you would rather the person not know when you activated, this is not the program for you.
Two US Mobile pages disagree about where you may share the link. The help article says you can share it “by email, on social media, or anywhere else, as many times as you want”. The terms say links are for private sharing only and that posting them on public forums, websites or social media groups to gain mass referrals is prohibited. The terms are the document you agree to, so we go by those.
It is taxable income, in US Mobile’s own words. Referral rewards “are each considered miscellaneous income and may be reportable to the IRS on Form 1099-MISC”, and US Mobile may ask you for the details it needs to report them. More in are sign-up bonuses taxable.
Old referrals stay on the old rules. Referrals made before July 27, 2026 are honored under the previous program’s terms, which is the $25, six-cycle version. If your friend sent you a link in June, that is the deal you are on.
Is it worth your time?
As a reason to switch carriers, no. As a bonus on a switch you were already making, yes, and it is the best-shaped carrier reward on this page because the card spends anywhere Mastercard does, which no bill credit can. What used to be a six-month wait with a spending target is now a port-in, a qualifying plan, and a card that US Mobile says typically arrives within two business days. The one thing that has not changed is the link: it has to come from a person, so decide on the plan first and ask around after.
US Mobile also lists a 30-day free trial among its current offers, running since December 19, 2024. The referral terms do not mention it and do not say whether the two combine, so we have not counted it toward anything here.
If you stick around and refer others yourself, US Mobile pays you $30 for each eligible referral, with no stated limit on how many. The old ladder that climbed to $225 a referral ended with the previous program on July 26, 2026.
